A similar food product is known in the form of margarine which is an emulsion of fat, oil and water particles. Almost 20% water and/or skimmed fresh milk are uniformly distributed in the fat used (at least 80%) in the margarine in the form of fine droplets. The fat, which is solid at normal temperatures, gives this emulsion the soft form, for it surrounds the liquid oil and the water as a honeycomb. Margarine is produced today predominantly of vegetable material. Besides the liquid oils, fats are used which in our latitude can be regarded as solid oil. However, as sufficient solid fats are not available from nature, a part of the oil is converted through hardening to solid form of the desired melting point.
This hardening of the oil is regarded as a considerable disadvantage. On the one hand it is a chemical action on the fatty acids which denaturalizes the product in a certain manner, on the other hand, for the hardening, nutritionally advantageous unsaturated fatty acids are converted into nutritionally less desirable saturated fatty acids. The nickel catalyst mixed with the oil for the hardening is filtered out after the hardening but, however, a minimal residue remains which is regarded as a further disadvantage by nutritional scientists.
If margarine is used as a bread spread, the high fat content of 80% disturbs many users. On this ground there has been developed a half-fat-margarine which contains only half as much fat. Through the additional water content there is achieved a calorific value reduction but at the cost of the taste of the product.
In spite of these in the publicity not unknown disadvantages, margarine is widely used not so much on account of its lower price as much more on account of the use of non-animal fat to a large extent. That happens because no other bread spread of creamy to solid consistency is present which can be spread similarly to butter but contains less fat and therefore more protein.
While butter and margarine bread spread are of relatively neutral taste so that they bring further overlays of wurst, cheese, curds and specialties produced from these to their full taste, there is a line of curd and cheese specialties which also serve as bread spreads but on account of their taste can never replace margarine or butter.
An example of this is a sour milk cheese named Labneh previously produced in Egypt, in the production of which olive or cottonseed oil and lemon juice were added in various amounts for taste. In Lebanon, Jordan and Syria this sour milk cheese is still produced from Labban, a yogurt-like sour milk, through draining. This sour milk cheese produced by draining flocculent sour milk protein together with edible oil has a strong cheese taste. It can never replace margarine as a neutral taste base for the production of specialties.
A further example is the process known from DE 32 26 756 A 1 for the production of Tsaziki by which curds are mixed first with small pieces of fresh cucumbers then with garlic and finally mixed with edible oil.